On the way to the office…

It is a twenty minute walk to the city office.  I subvocalised to the office manager as I came into range of our office network.  Hal.  Any calls?   I am a bit of a traditionalist in naming AIs.

Billy called from school, he wanted permission to go skurking.  The sales manager at Sydney Institute of Technology Services Division called.  She has invited Barvennon Associates to tender for a grade one services package on the original SIT-UTS site.  Eighteen students called to enroll in your new neural communication devices class.

Skurking was a VR variant of Kung Fu.  My twelve year old was an enthusiastic Skurker.   Hal.  Send an authority for Billy.. . and give me an update on the latest enrollment numbers.

I considered the SITS offer.  The old SIT-UTS site was not as salubrious as the Sydney University theaters where we presently ran classes, but it was the most prestigious lecture theater provider in Sydney, and offered access to the best student support and socializing facilities in the Sydney CBD.  Two recent hit VR's were set in the Karima coffee lounge on the  SIT-UTS campus.

Both SITS and SITQ were originally divisions of SIT.  SITQ (Qualifications) had 53% of the qualification market in South East Asia.  In 2005 SITS had bought the University of Technology Sydney, (UTS) and currently made obscene amounts of money by renting out lecture theaters to independent teacher partnerships such as Barvennon Associates.

Hal's rich baritone interrupted my train of reflection; We have two thousand full contract students for the April intake, eight thousand four hundred and thirty eight detached service contracts, twenty thousand seven hundred and sixty one variable service contracts, and about eighty three thousand two hundred advisory retainers.

Hal. Call a meeting of the partners at 2.00 PM to consider the SITS offer.

I mulled over the figures for a moment.  Barvennon Associates' specialty was Virtual Reality Communications Devices.  We offered education packages for the VRCD qualifications currently on offer by SITQ, SUNY and C&G.  Delivery modes ranged from "full contract" live classes & tutorials in 42 international centers, "detached service" which was a videolink to live classes & tutorials, internet supervision correspondence ("variable service") contracts, and an Internet help desk on retainer.  The full contract premium package was attendance at live lectures in hundred seat theaters taught by a partner with supporting tutorials.   Barvennon Associates consistently had a the highest knowledge delta rate for a non selective trainer in VRCD.  In the education market, knowledge delta translates very directly into student enrollments.

The latest development in VRCD was the Gospodin neural detector.  The Gospodin used very sensitive detectors to scan brain activity, and could then transmit messages back to the brain. No more cumbersome VR helmets.  Talking to a computer was now like VR telepathy.

Hal. I continued,  Have you incorporated the OEM data for the latest Gospodin detectors into the prototype lecture tape yet?  And what were the Sumner-Miller figures on my last session?

OEM data incorporated and the first draft is ready for rehearsal,  Hal responded.  Audience response to your latest session were favorable.  Calculations from the class observation cameras indicate that your Sumner-Miller attention coefficient for the VR applications lecture has improved from 79% to 81% with 95% confidence limits of 1.2%.

Rehearsal ..

***Simulation loading now***

My image entered from the door.  Despite being sixty five, I still had an acceptably shaped body, and the combination of red hair and pale blue eyes (myob) was a calculated  challenge for any male (or female) watching.   Those anti agetic drugs were worth every cent.  Clothing was a little sparse, but it was (just barely) an acceptable variation on the latest Jakarta fashions.

That's the education business.  Somehow, grab attention.  If you can turn that attention into interest, the message goes down like chocolate.

I went into critic mode and listened to the message.  The newest Gospodin neural devices were mind boggling. Recommended maximum range between device and head was ten meters.   After an assimilation period of ten minutes the device correctly interpreted 99.9% of electrical patterns.  Gospodin claimed to have solved the saturation problem of direct visual and auditory stimulation.  This stuff was fantastic!

I donned the neuroprompter and stood before the rostrum.  When I had finished the performance the reviewer calculated that the Sumner-Miller attention coefficient would have been in the low seventies.  Not too bad for the first rehearsal.

Minutes of Barvennon Partners Meeting 2.00PM

There were twenty Partners at the meeting, and fifty Associates.  Three partners & five associates were RL, the rest were VR holograms.  (Sylvia was on sabbatical in a neo-trappist monastery, and Roger called in his apologies.)  I called the meeting to order, the last meeting's minutes were read & accepted.  We moved to discussion of the SITS invitation.

Jeremy, one of the Associates, raised the issue of costs.

Maggie responded:  “I know SITS charge like a wounded rhino for their facilities.  They can charge that premium because customers associate the SIT qualification with SITS."

Everyone knows about SITQ, the privatized corporation with an income that rivaled that of many small (and some medium sized) countries.  It was the most prestigious qualifying authority in Asia.  In Europe & Africa the City & Guilds examinations were more widely accepted, while in the Americas the State University of New York was the market leader.  Those three marques had been fortunate in being positioned with the right package at the right time, and in offering a qualification in the international language, English.

The mega-Universities such as Oxford, MIT, UC, Chicago et al had missed out.  They were too rigid in their teaching structure, and were unwilling to take the gamble of offering a low cost open examination structure.  While still extremely important, most of those mega universities were now locked in to diminishing specialty research markets.

SITQ, SUNY and C&G were qualification supermarkets.  Any applicant could sit for any SITQ examination in any regional examination center anywhere in the world within 24 hours of paying the $100 fee.  A passing grade entitled the examinee to a qualification that was recognized and valued worldwide.

The vote to submit a bid for the SITS contract was unanimous.

The meeting moved to other business.  Pyongyang now had two hundred detached contracts, and it was policy that a partner should attended to give the occasional class.  Joel was given the task.  He would fly up from Seoul on Wednesdays.

The number of variable contracts in the Lhasa branch offices had risen past one thousand and policy was that we should have an associate in charge.  We decided to invite expressions of interest.

The meeting closed at 2.20.PM

Chair: Gillian.

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